1. Play mistake-free football and you've got a pretty good chance of winning, one would think.

2. Run the football successfully and you should wear the other team down.

3. Have a clue on defense and better than half your work is done.

Well, then. As we look at the events that unfolded at Michigan Stadium last Saturday, where No. 5 Michigan amassed a 439-140 yardage edge, pounding suddenly de-polled Notre Dame on the ground and in the air, forced five Fighting Irish turnovers and simply cut down any and all N.D. offensive attempts ...

That would add up to a 38-0 rout of the Irish that had Notre Dame coach Ty Willingham assessing the biggest N.D. defeat since Nov. 30, 1985 thusly:

"I don't think we can take anything positive out of this," he said to Jeff Jeffers of WNDU-TV in South Bend. "We got outplayed, we got outcoached, we got outeverythinged. Nothing positive here."

The Irish somehow hung on to No. 23 in the beneficient USA coaches' poll, but there is little doubt Notre Dame is looking at a long season if that offense doesn't show up pronto.

On the other side of the ball, Chris Perry, who padded his running stats against the traditional two cupcakes Michigan always seems to open with at its "Big House," may have made his first major Heisman Trophy statement.

Forget the 133-yard rushing output -- coach Lloyd Carr spread the wealth -- and concentrate on one major drive-sustaining play in the first quarter that may be one of Michigan's 2003 defining moments.

He seemed trapped for a respectable, but short-of-first-down gain as sure-tackling Jason Beckstrom lined him up. As surely as Perry changed from his Clark Kent suit into an instant Superman, he hurdled the powerful Irish cornerback and picked up five more yards to sustain a drive that resulted his short T.D. burst.

"I thought to myself, 'Oh my God, I can't believe he did that,' " Carr told Curt Rallo of the South Bend Tribune. "That play, that was a great individual effort. It gave us a first down. We were going to have to punt..."

Perry, who scored four touchdowns -- three rushing and one on a short pass from John Navarre -- termed his heroics "reaction."

It was just part of a spectacular performance by the Wolverines and their 90% of the N.C.A.A. record "Big House" crowd of 111,726 savored every moment.

Michigan, which loathes early-season nonleague visits to high-powered opponents, will roll the dice this Saturday in nasty Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon, where it faces the No. 22 Oregon Ducks (3-0). Notre Dame (1-1) will try to find itself at home against Michigan State (2-1), which is coming off a last-second home loss to Louisiana Tech.

BUCKING THE TRENDS -- No. 4 Ohio State (3-0) found itself up 24-7 on visiting North Carolina State (1-2) early in the fourth quarter as nearly 105,000 Buckeye loyalists eagerly a respite from the near-miss the previous week against San Diego State, whom the Bucks barely beat, 16-13.

Ah, but those final 11 minutes...

Factor in --

1. A truly gutsy performance by N.C. State quarterback Philip Rivers, who withstood a battering by the Ohio State pass rush.

2. The visitors T.A. McLendon suddenly finding a few running lanes and the Wolfpack challenging the far more talented Bucks on every play.

3. Some of the more creative officiating (by an Atlantic Coast Conference crew) seen in the Horseshoe in a generation.

In the end, the Buckeyes survived a 3-overtime slug-a-thon only when Will Allen and A.J. Hawk stuffed McLendon's desperation fourth-and-inches goal line plunge.

And even then, the striped billybobs stood for what seemed an eternity before having to admit their guy didn't make it to the promised land.

"I saw an opening," McLendon told Melissa Isaacson of the Chicago Tribune, "and I don't know who hit me. But I fell with my arms in the air. I think I have (a first down or touchdown) every play, but I guess I didn't here."

But that wasn't the only guessing going on.

The referees had awarded N.C. State the football after talented Jerricho Cotchery was ruled to have recovered Santonio Holmes' fumble on a punt. Instant replays confirmed the fumble was clearly ground-caused. This after two hugely-debatable pass-interference calls went against the Bucks. Not this officiating crew's finest hour.

A few plays later, Cotchery caught Rivers' pass to cut the Bucks' lead to 24-14 and the Wolfpack caught fire.

It was discouraging for O.S.U., of course, but the victory was still there for the taking. And anybody who has followed Jim Tressel's teams, all the way back to Youngstown State, knows their trend toward finding ways to win the close ones.

It was quarterback Craig Krenzel who took the leadership wheel and steered the Bucks out of the muck.

"We got in the huddle (in the third overtime possession) and I just kind of looked at the guys and said, 'This is what you come to Ohio State for,' " he told Isaacson. "When you're going into overtime against a great football team -- whether it's early in the season or for the national championship against Miami -- that's a big football game, there's a lot of excitement."

Probably a little too much for the excitable Horseshoe mob. But in the end, again, the Buckeyes were survivors.

"Nobody's going to walk out of Ohio Stadium today saying everything is perfect and wonderful," Tressel told Isaacson after the 81-year-old facility's first-ever overtime game. "But I feel good about how hard our guys played."

ELSEWHERE -- Upsets by outsiders (Louisiana Tech @ Michigan State, Nevada-Las Vegas @ Wisconsin, which dropped the Badgers out of the top 25) caused a few ripples through the league ... Louisiana Tech scored two touchdowns in the final 69 seconds for the 20-19 upset of the Spartans (2-1). Coach Jack Bicknell, son of the former Boston College legend, Jack Bicknell, who coached Doug Flutie: "I don't know what to say, I really don't," he told The Associated Press. "I just checked about 15 times to see if we actually won." ... Wisconsin (2-1) lost tailback Anthony Davis in the first half in its 23-5 loss to U.N.L.V. (2-1) ... The Badgers held the Rebels to 187 yards, but suffered five killer turnovers ...

No. 25 Purdue's second half defensive resiliency -- and a key interception by Stuart Schweigert that stopped a last-ditch Wake Forest drive helped the Boilermakers (2-1) avenge a bitter 24-21 home loss to the Demon Deacons from last year... Penn State (1-2) showed a great deal more heart than it did against Boston College, actually threatening to stop Nebraska's 33-game home winning streak against nonconference opponents before finally wearing down in the second half...No. 18 Iowa's Sean Constantine blocked two punts in the 3-0 Hawkeyes' 40-21 win at cross-state rival Iowa State.

THEY SAID IT -- Leave it to Northwestern, which houses the prestigious Medill School of Journalism, to produce some of the more candid players in college football. In describing his team's 44-14 loss to visiting Miami of Ohio, offensive guard Matt Ulrich, an awesomely-built 6-2, 302 pounder, offered this assessment to the Chicago Sun-Times' Brian Hanley: "We lost because we played like sissies on the o-line. We pride ourselves in being big, strong men, push people around...and we didn't do it." Led by likely high draft pick Ben Roethlisberger, the Red Hawks shredded N.U.'s defense for 515 yards, including Roethlisberger's 28-of-37 passing for 368 and three touchdowns.